Various video coding algorithms use motion compensated predictive coding for reduction of transmission bandwidth. This is known as Motion Compensated Temporal Filtering (MCTF). In such hybrid schemes, temporal redundancy is reduced using motion compensation, and spatial redundancy is reduced using motion compensation residual transform coding. Motion compensation includes usage of motion estimation (ME) to generate motion vectors (MV), which are used in order to minimize the amount of data to be transmitted when an object moves its position in one picture relative to another picture. The motion vectors are then encoded and transmitted to the decoder, which can then locate the object in a reference picture and move it according to the motion vectors. Motion estimation uses either forward or backward or bi-directional referencing.
New display types, e.g. miniature mobile displays, get by with progressive video sequences of low spatial and temporal resolution, while others, e.g. HDTV receivers, require interlaced sequences with high spatial resolution and standard temporal resolution. But while most standard definition (SD) video material is interlaced, recent research in scalable video coding has concentrated on evaluation of progressive video. A method for transmission of spatially and temporally scalable, interlaced video that provides a wide range of scalability is described in the European Patent Application EP03290507. It is based on separating a video frame sequence into a base layer (BL) and an enhancement layer (EL).